Every week I look at stories about Maryland and yesterday I found one that just made me outright mad. It was story in the Maryland Reporter, which has donors including the pro-business groups Maryland Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Baltimore Committee. Anyway, the story with a pro-business tone noted: “Sen. David Brinkley is championing a bill to lower Maryland’s corporate tax rate saying that his legislation would bring jobs to Maryland and help state businesses “compete with Virginia.” The bill, SB34, would lower Maryland’s corporate tax rate from 8.25% to 6% starting in tax year 2013…[which] would cost the state approximately $381 million in fiscal year 2014…Brinkley…defended his legislation, saying that it would improve the state’s economy by providing financial incentives for companies to move to Maryland…Several witnesses testified in favor of the bill, including Del. Kelly Schulz, R-Frederick, who said that the defense contracting firm she works for moved out of Maryland because of the corporate tax rate…Nevertheless, Brinkley said, Maryland has the disadvantage of being near a more competitive state.” Now, I ask why would Senator Brinkley propose such legislation? This is what I looked into when I did my research.

I started with the bill and there is only one section that matters. This section amended existing law, changing the current corporate tax rate of 8.25% to 6%. Is this rate high? Actually it is in the high amounts because most states have it ranging between 1.0% (Alaska) and 12% at the highest (Iowa) according to a report by the Federation of Tax Administrators. Still, why would Brinkley lower the corporate tax rate to 6% when they are the ones that have corrupted our political system?

Like some of the other analyzes I have done, I looked at the filed reports that were in the Maryland Campaign Reporting Information System. I went all the way back to 2006 to see his corporate connections. I found his top contributors of note since 2005 (NOT INCLUDING PACs) have been:

A plumbing company that is a “respected” mechanical contractor named R. W. Warner, Inc. (2005-6, 2008-11)

North American Housing which supposedly “builds energy efficient modular homes, modular home additions, multi-family modular homes and modular garages…in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the District of Columbia.” (2006)

Robert Mochi, who is a principal and branch manager of the Frederick branch of the consulting firm Bowman Consulting, is a member of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce, the Land Use Council, and Board of Directors Member in the Frederick County Builders Association (2010-2011)

I have concluded from these results that the reason Brinkley would propose such a measure is he is a damn corporatist!(1) I mean his pockets are filled with corporate cash literally. I’ll look into and Delegate Kelly Schulz as well and what’s up with the co-sponsors of the House counterpart. Maybe they’re pockets are filled with corporate cash as well. Who knows.

Here is my recommendation: Email/mail your Senators and tell them to vote NO on SB 34! Email/mail your Delegates as well (using the same link above) and tell them to vote NO on HB261, the companion bill in the House. Tell them that the state is already facing a budget deficit and losing $381 million annually to make the state more “competitive” is not worth it. Urge them to not co-sponsor the bill. If one of your delegates is one who is 25 co-sponsoring the House version of the bill, tell them to drop it immediately! When Brinkley comes up for election (if you live in his district then DO NOT re-elect him). In closing, I hope you learned something from this article and use it to change the corruption in the state level of politics.

(1) “A person who embodies this term would… decisively reject the traditional theory of perfect competition…[accept] the ongoing trend toward increased reliance on public corporations, and argue that the government should…accept the current movement toward cartels, holding companies, trade associations, pools and other forms of monopoly power [and] should proactively assist and accelerate this trend in order to regulate and control it…[say] the state [should] set goals for these corporations and evaluate their performance, but not manage them directly…[support]…self-regulation [of big business in order to create]…the ultimate corporatist institutional arrangement…one who believed these ideals would want a government that benefits big business in some way or another, as well as for their one benefit.”- http://interestingblogger.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/what-do-those-certain-words-mean/